1. Karl-Gustav Sauberzweig returned to the Wehrmacht in January 1945 and was appointed as a Generalleutnant to command a corps within Army Group H in northern Germany.
18 Facts About Karl-Gustav Sauberzweig
1. 2.
Karl-Gustav Sauberzweig married Erna Giese in 1924, and his son Dieter was born in 1925.
3.
Karl-Gustav Sauberzweig was then responsible for quartermaster supplies and care.
4.
On 1 October 1936 Karl-Gustav Sauberzweig was promoted to the rank of Major and on 1 March 1938 to Oberstleutnant.
5.
On 1 June 1940 Karl-Gustav Sauberzweig was wounded in the south-east of Dunkirk and remained in the Army Corps until 1941.
6.
On 1 June 1941 Karl-Gustav Sauberzweig was appointed as commander of the Wehrmacht 466th Infantry Regiment which he led on the Eastern Front.
7.
Karl-Gustav Sauberzweig was then employed by Army Group North in the occupied Soviet Union as a staff training leader.
8.
From 1 November 1942 Karl-Gustav Sauberzweig was employed as Wehrmacht chief of staff in the inspection of the education and training system.
9.
On 1 August 1943, Karl-Gustav Sauberzweig transferred to the Waffen SS and was appointed SS Oberfuhrer.
10.
Karl-Gustav Sauberzweig arrived in Mende, Lozere, France, to assume command from the Austrian Oberfuhrer Herbert von Obwurzer on 9 August 1943.
11.
Ultimately 825 "dark elements" as Karl-Gustav Sauberzweig called them, were removed from the Division permanently.
12.
On 1 October 1943, Karl-Gustav Sauberzweig was promoted to the rank of SS Brigadefuhrer and Generalmajor of Waffen SS.
13.
Karl-Gustav Sauberzweig twice hosted Mohammad Amin al-Husayni, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, at Neuhammer.
14.
Karl-Gustav Sauberzweig took the initiative to restore order and drafted the "Guidelines for the Liberation of Bosnia", focused on bringing back law and order, and above all to secure food supplies by confiscating it from the population.
15.
Karl-Gustav Sauberzweig's mandate sought to turn northeastern Bosnia into an SS vassal state, and this infuriated the Pavelic regime.
16.
On 19 June 1944 Karl-Gustav Sauberzweig formally handed over command of Handschar to SS Brigadefuhrer Desiderius Hampel and then travelled to Berlin to report in person to Himmler.
17.
Karl-Gustav Sauberzweig surrendered to the Western Allies and on 26 September 1946 submitted a written report of his experiences with the 13th Waffen Mountain Division of the SS Handschar whilst interned by the British army at Preetz, Schleswig-Holstein.
18.
On 20 October 1946 Karl-Gustav Sauberzweig committed suicide in Civil Internment Camp No 6 by swallowing poison rather than face extradition and trial in Yugoslavia.